Dumb Decisions: The DUMBEST Timeout of Week 2 | Bowling Green vs. Penn State (2024)

with football season upon us now there's a lot happening in the news so be sure to subscribe to my other channel jg9 news where I give you up to the minute updates on everything happening in the NFL in a completely relaxed unscripted format and I get my thoughts on everything taking place around the National Football League today and now on with our Feature Presentation September 7 2024 it's week 2 of the college football season and we find ourselves in State College for this non-conference battle between Bowling Green and Penn State for the main team in our story The NY Lions this scheme should be a walk in the park on paper it should be an absolute Cakewalk after Penn State opened up the season on the road with a dominant victory over West Virginia where it seemed as though the only thing that could stop the NY Lions was the weather that delayed the game by two hours they get to play in front of their home fans for the first time all season in a guaranteed game when Penn State and Bowling Green signed the contract to play each other back in 2017 it was reported that Penn State was paying Bowling Green a whopping $1.5 million and when you combine that with the fact that the spread for this game was Penn State by 34 and a half points with Penn State being roughly a five touchdown favorite to win yeah that's the kind of game I think everyone expected here and understandably so and with all of that in mind you would think that there's no way whatsoever that this game will be close right B green just going to come into Happy Valley in Penn State's home opener collect their 7even figure paycheck for doing so and get absolutely smoked against the number eight team in the country right well that could not have been further from the truth because in a shocking outcome after buling green scored on each of their first three drives and at three touchdowns in their first five drives the Falcons found themselves up on the nitt Lions 247 near the end of the first half and what would have easily been the biggest upset of the season and one of the biggest upsets in college football in quite some time still there's plenty of time left and Penn State has the football faced with third down at Bowling Green N9 yard line the nitty Lions have a timeout at their disposal if they need to use it for some reason but you hope it doesn't get to that point on Third and seven hen State ends up losing two yards after getting a sack and then move back from a N9 yard line to the 11 yd line well that's unfortunate and that sinks but at least you're likely going to be able to get three points out of this and at least the clock is still running so Bowling Green can't touch the ball again just wait a few seconds call your timeout with four or five on the game clock and go into the half hopefully down by four just wait a few seconds don't call the timeout immediately and you uh you call the timeout right away you call the timeout right away but why why would you do that why would you call it right away and get Bowling Green the ball back back why would you potentially give the Falcons a chance to do something and touch it James Franklin have you lost your mind did ke could Michael Key tell you to do this for a skin of some kind what is the purpose of this why did you call the timeout so quickly why did you call the timeout so [Applause] quickly welcome to dumb decisions before I break down what happened here this whole series has been taking an in-depth look at decisions made during games that were clearly a from the start this isn't something look bad in hindsight rather this is something look awful almost immediately these are moves where G instinct tells you right away that there is no way this can possibly work and sure enough your gun Instinct was smarter than that of a college head coach and for this one we're taking look at the minds of Penn St head coach James Franklin I feel as though the relationship that Penn State fans have with Franklin is very complicated on one hand and yes he does win games hen state is consistently finishing ranked and inside the top 10 on the other hand he hasn't quite got the nitty Lions over the hump and a lot of that has to do with some absolutely baffling iname management decisions on his end nothing's going to top that fourth and five run against Ohio State after calling a timeout that will forever be one of the stupidest things I've ever seen a coach do and this decision right here was pretty freaking stupid did it end up mattering no as Penn State by the Skin of Their Teeth survived the guarantee game and got the win but it doesn't change the fact that this was still a dumb call if I need to get an 80 on a multiple choice test to pass the class and I intentionally leave one of the answers blank even though time was not an issue and there's no penalty for guessing wrong even if I passed the class it doesn't change the fact that leaving that blank was a really stupid move that could have backfired on me and that was the case with whatever the heck James Franklin did with that timeout at 14 seconds so with that being said let's take a look at what calling a Timeout on fourth down with 14 seconds left is a really bad idea in a fourth and goal situation where you're kicking the field goal you know that your fourth down play is going to be the last play of the drive with that in mind let's look at the two scenarios at hand option one is you do what I would have done in this spot and what anyone with a working brain would have done in this spot and that is to take the time out at 4 seconds left now one of two things can happen in the first scenario you make the field goal and that's great you get three points before the half you only find yourselves tring by four and Bowling Green doesn't touch the ball for the remainder of the half in the second scenario you missed the field goal and that sinks especially because it was a relatively close kick however Bowling Green doesn't touch the ball for the remainder of the half even if the kick gets blocked unless Bowling Green hit takes it to the house they're not touching the ball on a plate from scrimmage the rest of the way either way no matter what happens whether you make the field goal or you miss it by calling a timeout at 4 seconds you assure yourselves that this will be the last play of the half and you guarantee the fact that the Falcons will not touch the ball again if you want an example of that look at the Tennessee NCC game where Tennessee played that perfectly by letting the clock run down after a third down loss to bring up fourth down with they took the timeout very late and that field goal was the final play of the half that was beautifully done what James Franklin did here was not because let's look at what James Franklin decided to do here by calling the timeout with 14 seconds left a field goal is only going to take four or 5 Seconds off the clock so let's say you make the field goal all right that's good that you're down by four but guess what there's still 10 seconds left in the half so you still have to give it back to Bowling Green now we don't like Hood the kickoff is going to go for a Touchback and then the Falcons will just take a knee at their own 25 yd line and go into the half with the lead but there's a chance that this doesn't happen there's a chance that the kickoff is not a good one and winds up going out of bounds and now the Falcons have a timeout and the ball at the 40 yd line and have time to run one or two plays before kicking a field goal or they have a chance that a Hail Mary there is a chance that the kickoff is short and the coverage fails and it goes for a longward turn or even a touchdown there is the chance on the kickoff that one of your guys gets injured on a play that never should have happened in the first place bottom line if you make the field goal in the first scenario where you took the timeout at 4 seconds there was a 100% chance that this would have been the last play of the half if you make the field goal in this scenario Bowling Green could still do something with the ball they have a chance I'm not saying it will happen but why take that chance you don't have to and then of course if you miss the field goal because the kick gets blocked Bowling Green might still have time to run a play on offense with decent field position and a hail marry opportunity something that they would not have been able to do with better timeout Management on your end it's a basic idea and understanding of taking chances you take chances in life because you have to why take a chance when you don't have to as an example let's say you need to be somewhere by 1:00 it's 12:40 and on a pretty empty road and at a stoplight which is red and all you have to do is get past the stop light and it's an immediate turn into the parking lot we're talking it's maybe 100 ft from the light to the parking lot whether you're there at 12:45 or 12:59 does not matter you just have to be in the building by 1:00 option one is to wait for the Stop like to turn green and then go and get into the lot option two is suggesting ignore the red and go is it likely that you get hit by a car since it's an empty road is it likely that there is an undercover cop somewhere who's going to pull you over because you ran the red probably not but again why take that chance there's no reason to do so make the field goal be the final play of the half no questions asked and make it so that Bowling Green has zero opportunity to call a play from scrimmage or get good field position don't do well whatever the heck this was was where you called it him out for no reason to give it back to the other team if you like the NFL it's sort of what happened last year in the Thursday night football game between the Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs remember that one after the Broncos got sa and got fourth down with 15 seconds left in the half the Broncos inexplicably decided to call a timeout giving Kansas City the ball back for no reason whatsoever there was no reason for Shawn payon to call a timeout and give the achieved an extra possession but he did and it backfired on him miserably you could learn more about that by clicking the card in the upper right corner obviously when it came to the man you been watching this whole time James Franklin this didn't backfire on him at the end of the day Bowling Green got the ball back on the kickoff on a Touchback and they just took a KNE to go into the half so this was no harm done but still there was no need for that to happen you risked a massive kickoff return for no reason you risked a kickoff out of bounds and good starting fuel position for no reason you risk the fuel getting blocked and return and the opposition of a good starting fuel position for a hmary or long fuel of their own for no reason bottom line you win the game by scoring points and you score points by having possessions so if you're giving the other team an extra possession when you literally do not have to then it's a bad move Point Blank it's a bad move so what do we learn from all this if you have two options and one of them is guaranteed to not give the ball back to the opposing team while the other is guaranteed to do that then pick the option that is guaranteed to not give the ball back if you have two options and one of them ensures the fact that the other team cannot do anything and you're touching the ball last while the other one ensures the fact that the other team will touch the ball last with a chance to do something then pick the option that is guaranteed to make sure that you're touching it last if your play is guant gu to be the final play of the drive and your play can take the clock all the way down to Triple zeros at the end of the half or the end of the game then you might as well take it all the way down and not leave anything to chance when you do not have to and if you do not know how it wins a call timeouts and how possessions work which is a very fundamental thing in football then you're probably not getting your team over the hump anytime soon because when all these elements are in play you can't exactly be surprised when this play backfires talk about a dumb decision get your official Jabar gear9 merchandise by going to jj9 shop.com and be sure to like And subscribe as it really helps the channel out a lot join me every Wednesday night where we'll play NFL trimon for cash prizes at 9:00 p.m. Eastern over on Twitch to learn more about the history of college football subscribe to jaar Gator 8 to learn more about the history of Major League Baseball subscribe to javar Gator 7 also special thanks to all of our patreon supporters for helping out the channel your support is is greatly appreciated see how you can become my Patron and request future video topics in the description below [Music]